Firms win £1.5 million of contracts on new council website

Contracts worth £1.5 million have been clinched by firms from a new online initiative spearheaded by Surrey County Council.

Local businesses have won 31 contracts totalling almost £1.57m just six months after the BuildSurrey website’s launch.

Surrey created the site to help firms secure work as part of a pledge to ensure 60% of its spending on goods and services is with local businesses.

Surrey leader David Hodge

The site lets firms pitch for building and repair work from the council, its main contractors and others in the public sector and helped Surrey earn a government award for being among the top 10 authorities in the country to do business with.

Guilfram Heating Company, based in Wonnersh Common, Guildford, won a contract for work at Therfield School, Leatherhead, and Thorpe company DH Electrical services secured a deal to make improvements at St Hugh of Lincoln Primary School in Woking.

DH Electrical project manager Chris Small said: “This was our first project for the county council, so it was a new opportunity. Using BuildSurrey is a very straightforward process and the site makes it easy to bid for work. In fact, we’re actually preparing another tender now.”

Surrey leader David Hodge said: “Local businesses are the heartbeat of every community and our role is to help them do what they do best – create jobs and promote growth. That is why we’ve pledged to ensure 60% of our spending is with local firms.

“With local businesses already benefiting to the tune of £1.5m BuildSurrey is proving to be an innovative way of helping us to achieve this and I have no doubt the website and the firms that use it will continue to go from strength to strength.”